"this meffenger, and on this good day, I commit the inclosed holy hymns "and fonnets (which for the matter, not the workmanship, have yet escaped "the fire), to your judgment, and to your protection too, if you think them worthy of it; and I have appointed this inclosed fonnet to usher them to your happy hand.

"Your unworthieft fervant,

"Unless your accepting him to be fo

MICHAM, JULY 11, 1607.

"Have mended him,

JO. DONNE."

TO THE LADY MAGDALEN HERBERT; OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN.

Her of your name, whose fair inheritance

Bethina was, and jointure Magdalo;

An active faith fo highly did advance,

That the once knew more than the Church did know,

The refurrection; so much good there is

Deliver'd of her, that fome fathers be

Loth to believe one woman could do this;

But think these Magdalens were two or three.
Increase their number, Lady, and their fame;
To their devotion, add your innocence;
Take so much of th' example as of the name;
The latter half; and in fome recompence
That they did harbour Christ himself a guest,
Harbour these hymns, to his dear name addreft.

J. D.

These hymns are now loft to us; but doubtlefs they were fuch, as they two now fing in heaven.

There might be more demonstrations of the friendship, and the many facred endearments betwixt these two excellent perfons (for I have many of their letters in my hand) and much more might be faid of her great prudence and piety; but my design was not to write her's, but the Life of

her

her Son; and therefore I shall only tell my reader, that about that very day twenty years that this letter was dated, and fent her, I faw and heard this Mr. John Donne (who was then Dean of St. Paul's) weep, and preach her funeral fermon, in the parish-church of Chelsey, near London; where she now refts in her quiet grave; and where we must now leave her, and return to her fon George, whom we left in his ftudy in Cambridge.

And in Cambridge we may find our George Herbert's behaviour to be fuch, that we may conclude, he confecrated the first-fruits of his early age to virtue, and a serious study of learning. And that he did fo, this following letter and fonnet, which were in the first year of his going to Cambridge fent his dear mother for a new-year's gift, may apppear to be fome teftimony.

"But I fear the heat of my late ague

hath dried up those springs, by which scholars fay, the muses use to take up their habitations. However I need not their help, to reprove the vanity of those many lovepoems that are daily writ and confecrated to Venus; nor to bewail that "fo few are writ, that look towards God and heaven. For my own part, my meaning (dear mother) is in these fonnets, to declare my refolution "to be, that my poor abilities in poetry fhall be all and ever confecrated to God's glory; and I beg you to receive this as one testimony.”

My God, where is that ancient heat towards thee,
Wherewith whole fhoals of martyrs once did burn,
Befides their other flames? Doth poetry

Wear Venus livery? only ferve her turn?
Why are not fonnets made of thee? and layes
Upon thine altar burnt? Cannot thy love
Heighten a fpirit to found out thy praise
As well as any fhe? Cannot thy dove
Out-strip their Cupid eafily in flight?

Or, fince thy ways are deep, and ftill the fame,
Will not a verse run smooth that bears thy name
Why doth that fire, which by thy power and might
Each breaft does feel, no braver fewel choose
Than that, which one day worms may chance refuse.
3 A 2

Sure,

Sure, Lord, there is enough in thee to dry
Oceans of ink; for, as the deluge did
Cover the earth, fo doth thy majesty:
Each cloud diftils thy praife, and doth forbid
Poets to turn it to another use.

Rofes and lilies fpeak thee; and to make
A pair of cheeks of them is thy abuse.
Why fhould I women's eyes for crystal take?
Such poor invention burns in their low mind
Whofe fire is wild, and doth not upward go
To praife and on thee, Lord, fome ink beftow.
Open the bones, and you shall nothing find
In the best face but filth; when, Lord, in thee
The beauty lies, in the difcovery.

G. H.

This was his refolution at the fending this letter to his dear mother; about which time, he was in the feventeenth year of his age; and as he grew older, fo he grew in learning, and more and more in favour both with God and man; infomuch, that in this morning of that short day of his life, he feem'd to be mark'd out for virtue, and to become the care of heaven; for God ftill kept his foul in fo holy a frame, that he may, and ought to be a pattern of virtue to all pofterity, and especially to his brethren of the clergy, of which the reader may expect a more exact account in what will follow.

I need not declare that he was a ftrict ftudent, because, that he was fo, there will be many teftimonies in the future part of his life. I fhall therefore only tell, that he was made Bachelor of Arts in the year 1611; Major Fellow of the College, March 15, 16152: And that in that year he was alfo made Master of Arts, he being then in the 22d year of his age; during

all

* It appears from the Burfar's books of Trinity College, that Mr. Herbert was elected a scholar of the house, May 5, 1609; Minor Fellow, Oct. 3, 1614; and Major Fellow, March 15, 1615. He was matriculated, Dec. 18, 1609, by the name of Georgius Harbert, the first among the penfioners of Trinity College; became B. A. in 1612; M. A. in 1616; and on the 21st of October, 1619, was substituted to the office of Orator in the absence of Sir Francis Netherfole, Knight, then abroad on the king's bufinefs. (From the Grace Book of the University f Cambridge.)

all which time, all, or the greatest diverfion from his ftudy, was the practice of mufic, in which he became a great mafter; and of which he would fay, "That it did relieve his drooping fpirits, compofe his diftracted thoughts, "and raised his weary foul fo far above the earth, that it gave him an "earneft of the joys of heaven before he poffeft them." And it may be noted, that from his first entrance into the college, the generous Dr. Nevil was a cherisher of his ftudies, and fuch a lover of his perfon, his behaviour, and the excellent endowments of his mind, that he took him often into his own company, by which he confirmed his native gentleness; and, if during this time he expreffed any error, it was that he kept himself too much retired, and at too great a distance with all his inferiors; and his clothes feemed to prove, that he put too great a value on his parts and parentage.

This may be fome account of his difpofition and of the employment of his time, till he was Mafter of Arts, which was anno 1615; and in the year 1619 he was chofen Orator for the Univerfity. His two precedent Orators,

This is a true picture of a young academician, whom vanity incites to affix too great a value on the splendour of birth, and the frivolous diftinctions of hereditary rank. At this time Mr. Herbert's pecuniary refources were not very plentiful. In a letter dated March 18, 1617, he writes; "I protest and vow I even study thrift, and yet I am scarce able, with much ado, to make one half-year's allowance fhake the hands with the other."

He seems to have been prodigioufly fond of fine clothes; for his biographer tells us afterward, that "he enjoyed his gentile humour for fine clothes and court-like company." And it appears that he did not change "his fword and filk clothes into a canonical coat," till four years after he was Prebendary of Lincoln.. If his taste in this respect had been doubted, he might have answered as Autolicus did to the fimple Shepherd.

"Shep. Are you a courtier, an like you, Sir?

"Aut. Whether it like me, or no, I am a courtier. Seeft thou not the air of a court in "thefe enfoldings? hath not my gaite in it the measure of the court?"

Shakespear's Winter's Tale, Act IV. Scene XI.

Of the office of Orator, which ftill continues the most honourable academical employment, Mr. Herbert has given the best description in a letter to a friend. "The Orator's place, that you may underftand what it is, is the finest place in the univerfity, though not the gain"fulleft, yet that will be about 30l. per annum: But the commodioufnefs is beyond the

"revenue,

Orators were Sir Robert Nanton and Sir Francis Netherfoled: The first was not long after made Secretary of State; and Sir Francis, not very long after

"revenue, for the Orator writes all the univerfity letters, makes all the orations, be it to the "king, prince, or whatever comes to the univerfity. To requite these pains, he takes place "next the Doctors, is at all their affemblies and meetings, and fits above the Proctors; is "Regent or Non-regent at his pleasure, and such like gaynesses which will please a young man well."

"Robertus Naunton, Difcipulus, Maii 2, 1582. Soc. Minor, Oct. 2, 1585. Soc. Major, "Mar. 15, 1586." (Burfar's Books at Trin. Coll.) Sir Robert Naunton, a native of Suffolk, was defcended from a very ancient family in that county. He was tranfplanted from Trinity College to Trinity Hall, where he was chofen Fellow. He was the author of "Fragmenta "Regalia, or Obfervations on the late Queen Elizabeth, her Times and Favourites," a tract ufually printed along with "Arcana Aulica; or Walfingham's Manual of Prudential Maxims for the Statesman and Courtier;" the one being a compendium of politics for the ordering of a court life, the other a judicious collection of great examples that have acted in conformity to thofe precepts, and made themselves famous to pofterity in their respective stations. He improved the opportunity of recommending himself to James I. at Hinching-brook, where the University met his Majefty on his first arrival from Scotland. The King was fo well pleased with his eloquence and learning, that he first appointed him Secretary of State, and then Master of the Wards. Mr. Howell, in one of his letters, relates of him, that while he attended on the Earl of Rutland, as Ambaffador to Denmark, he was appointed to deliver a Latin oration before the King. At the beginning of his speech, when he had pronounced Sereniffime Rex, he was dashed out of countenance, and fo gravelled, that he could go no farther.

d Francifcus Netherfole, Difcipulus, Ap. 12, 1605. Soc. Minor, Sep. 18, 1608. Soc. Major, Mar. 23, 1609. (Burfar's Books of Trinity College.) This gentleman, born at Netherfole, in the county of Kent, was preferred to be Ambaffador to the Princes of the Union, and Secretary to the Lady Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia. It is hard to fay, whether he was more remarkable for his doings or fufferings on her behalf. He married Lucy, eldest daughter of Sir Henry Goodyear, of Polefworth in Warwickshire, by whose encouragement, being free of himself to any good defign, he founded and endowed a very fair school at Polefworth aforefaid. (Sir William Dugdale's Hift. of Warwickshire.)

James I. paid a vifit to the University of Cambridge, in March 1614-15. When "Hee passed into Trinity College, where all the house ranked on each fide the entrance, he was prefented with a fhort oration by the Orator of the University, Mr. Francis Netherfole, Fellow of the faid college, kneeling all the while on his knees, the which his Majefty graciously

accepted